The Nut Job

About a decade ago, The Nut Job probably could have never been made. But as the cost of computer-animated features continues to decrease, the marketplace becomes more saturated with products that start to feel the same after a while.

This innocuous and forgettable adventure is a good example. It has many of the genre staples in place, with talking animals and their zany fish-out-of-water antics, but little of the visual or storytelling flair that is needed to separate it from the pack.

So the result might entertain young children who are less discerning and have short attention spans (or who are still fans of the song “Gangnam Style”), but will leave accompanying adults bored with the obvious plotting and mostly predictable gags.

Taking place around 1960, it chronicles an urban squirrel named Surly (voiced by Will Arnett), whose selfishness causes him to be banned from the local park by his animal colleagues. However, when a nut shortage coincides with the onset of a harsh winter, Surly sees a chance to redeem himself with a plan to rob a local nut store that is met with various complications, including some human bank thieves who get in the way.

Veteran animator Peter Lepeniotis, making his feature directorial debut by expanding his short film of the same name, keeps the pace lively, to the extent that most viewers probably won’t even pause to consider the morally questionable Robin Hood-style lessons of redemption the film conveys. At any rate, there’s a relatively high cuteness quotient to the creatures, even if the animation as a whole feels pedestrian and lacking in sharp detail.

The screenplay includes some amusing sight gags and one-liners — delivered by a capable voice cast that includes Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl and Maya Rudolph — although it occasionally ventures into low-brow territory. The moments of broad slapstick work better than the attempts to parody heist and mob movies, which are less inspired. Then the film runs out of steam in the last act, when it tries to wrap up its divergent storylines while delivering the appropriate comeuppance.

So while all of this seems like pretty familiar territory, at least there are no penguins involved. Maybe the popularity of the neurotic critter from the Ice Age movies made squirrels a demographically viable second choice.

Rated PG, 86 minutes.